Waking Up Hopeful
by TWDCharlie
Summary: Beth Greene thought she was safe, thought that everything would be fine. She was back with her family and leaving this prison in disguise of a hospital. She had been taken, she knew that, but now she was free. But what came next shocked the whole group, left her lover sobbing, her sister distraught and left herself... dead. Or so it seemed..
1. Chapter 1

**AU: Hey guys, so this is my first fanfiction I have ever done. It's probably not the best, but as long as people enjoy it I will hopefully carry on! Sorry for any typos!**

**POV: Beth Greene**

They were stood in the hallway. She was back with her family, who all huddled together behind her. The enemy before her was defeated. She could leave finally. After weeks of being locked up in this disgusting hospital, being forced into looking after this place, it was now over. Freedom was ahead of her, she would be with the people she loved. Sure it would be hard on the road with no safe place to go to, but that is how it had always been. There would never be a safe haven, a place to go back to. A place that would last. The word 'safe' didn't work in today's day and age; nothing was completely safe, just some places were better than others. She had been fooled into thinking the prison they once secured and made as homely as possible, was where they would be hauled up forever. They could take care of the walkers staggering across the country; they could take care of having enough food to eat. But what they couldn't handle was the other survivors. She had forgotten about who the real enemy was. Like those standing in front of her, they were the real beings she should be afraid of. But whilst she was now back with her people, she would be able to take care of that sort of threat just one step at a time. She was growing, and she could finally show the growth that had occurred inside of her. With her time traipsing around with Daryl, with the time when she was alone, she realised something. She wasn't that scared teenager hiding in the prison. She was a woman.

After a side glance at female officer who had kept her captive, she turned around and strutted over to the door. She noticed Daryl stood to her left, who took put his hand to her arm, leading her out. She had looked up to him and smiled which he returned with an exhausted grin.

She had wanted to hold onto his hand and never let go. She wanted to press her lips to his, but she knew she couldn't. This wasn't the time or the place, and everybody was still stood tense. Their real reunion could wait until later, when they were alone and she was reunited with the rest of her family, including her sister.

She hadn't seen Maggie since what had happened to her father, and that was months ago. Yet still, time had not erased the pain inside her chest when she remembered her father. His soft smile, his white bushy beard and his wise old eyes that seemed to realise and know everything. As much as she wanted to remember her father, every time she thought about him, her heart broke into smaller pieces.

She needed to overcome what was happening right now before she tried to stitch her heart back together.

"Noah", a voice called out. "We want Noah." Dawn, her captive, made her stop in her tracks. The boy named Noah had been the only person to be truly kind to her while she was captured. He had also been kept there but for a much longer time, so she had tried to escape with him. She had been caught but he managed to get free and she could not explain how happy she was that he had met up her people. But here, now, these people still tried to ruin it all. Beth turned around and walked closer to Dawn.

"That wasn't the deal, Dawn." She spat. "Noah is with us, you can't control him anymore." The woman glared back at her.

"Noah has been with us for more than a year. We saved his life, we saved _your_ life. He is ours. Look, we're letting you go free, no strings attached. You just give us Noah, and you can go."

"Beth, Beth! It's okay." Noah lied as he limped towards her. "It's okay. I'm fine with it." He wrapped his arms around her shoulders tightly, and she returned the embrace, her eyes becoming glassy.

"No. No it's not okay." She winced at the thought of her friend leaving her, never seeing him again. That couldn't happen. She opened her eyes and saw Dawn standing there so arrogantly, and Beth knew she could end this right now. The other officers at the hospital despised Dawn; they wouldn't react to what she could do. Her family would be safe, Noah could leave and Dawn would be dead.

She remembered the pair of large silver scissors hidden inside her cast, lying next to her forearm. She released her grasp on Noah and moved towards the woman.

She stared into her eyes, trying to make herself seem confident. Her fingers in the cast wiggled around, pushing the scissors slowly away from the white material tightly wrapped around her arm. After, she wrapped her hands around the long frame and hid it behind her thigh.

"I get it now", she whispered. To Dawn, survival was about being alive. It didn't matter how you survived, but as long as you were functioning, you were a survivor. You could hurt anybody just to get what you wanted, and Beth knew this was wrong. She was willing to sacrifice herself for the people she loved. She noted Dawn's gun tucked into her jacket, and she knew that her actions would probably end with her demise but then something crept into her head. Her mind recalled the time she heard her father say something along the lines of _'I could save lives, and that's enough to risk mine._' That was all she could think about now, her father and his wise words.

Her body filled with adrenaline as she pulled her left arm up and slashed it into Dawn's neck. Everybody in the hallway's eyes widened at the sight of the red liquid trickling down the officer's neck, staining her uniform. Beth stepped back as the woman fell forwards, the woman's life slowly fading away.

Beth turned her back and walked away. She walked past Rick, whose face was still surprised. She walked past Daryl, who looked proud of her, and then she walked past Carol whose blank expression hid her emotions. She got to the door, with Noah by her side and she smiled. Everything would be ok now.

Then suddenly, a gunshot erupted down the hallway, ringing through everybody's ears. Daryl looked down at Dawn, whose arm was outstretched with her pistol falling out her hand. He looked in the direction of where the gun was pointing and saw Beth collapsing to the ground. He screamed in rage and ran towards her, catching her in his arms. His lip trembled as tears streamed down his face. "Beth wake up. Beth! No, no, no, c'mon. Stay with me." But she was already gone. The bullet had pierced the back of her head and gone straight through. She was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Thanks to everybody who reviewed or read my last chapter, it means so much to me! Hope you enjoy!**

First she heard the moans. Those gritty sounds you could never get used to for as long as you lived. Her skin automatically started to crawl at her realisation that the sounds were so close to her. She had been sat there for hours, beside her sister, blubbering down onto Beth's grey cardigan. Their fingers were interlocked and nobody could get Maggie to let go. Until now.

They were supposed to be burying her, putting her to rest. She agreed to the idea, wanting at least one of her family members to get a proper funeral. But now, being the only living Greene left, her heart had dropped. She couldn't even let go of her poor little sister. She had tried to protect her for so long; she knew the minute the prison was down that her sister would be gone. With her mission to find Glenn, she tried to forget that Beth would probably be dead in days, pushing her memory to the back of her mind. But now she couldn't forget. Her sister was lying in front of her and she couldn't help but feel like it was her fault.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed at her sleeve, the person screaming at her. She couldn't hear what they were saying as she had blanked out, but she turned her head and saw Glenn standing before her. "We gotta go, Maggie!"

Her eyes looked across the opening in the forest and saw everybody battling walkers. Michonne took lead of the group, with Rick by her side, and she took her katana out of its sheath and sliced two walkers' heads clean off. The rest of the group stood behind, killing any that managed to get through. Bringing up the rear was Tyreese, cradling baby Judith, and Carl fighting walkers in front of him.

She blinked back down to her sister. She couldn't leave her here; she couldn't let her little sister become walker chow like what happened to her father. But what else could she do? Beth deserved a proper burial, but the walkers were coming in large numbers and the longer she waited to leave, the more likely they would be having another funeral very soon.

Maggie bent over Beth, who was half buried into the ground, and kissed her forehead.

"I'm sorry Bethy", she cried.

She stood up, and put her hand upon Glenn's which was still on her shoulder and gave a weak smile. He pulled her away from Beth and took her over to Tyreese, dodging the walkers in his path.

"Stay here, I'll go tell Rick we're ready to go."

He turned his back on her, and leaped at a female walker in a dirty white blouse and stabbed her right in the head. He pushed her off his blade and ran around more of the walkers, blending in with the crowd of bloodthirsty monsters. Maggie's eyes darted across the moving bodies, searching for Glenn, but she couldn't spot him. He disappeared. As she looked closer, she realised she couldn't see anybody other than Tyreese, Carl and Judy. The walkers were streaming out of the trees at such a pace; it must have been too much. It was her fault.

"Carl!" Tyreese shouted. "Come over here, you're getting surrounded!"

Carl battled his way through, and stopped in front of them

"I can't see anybody, everybody was out there fighting. But we can't stay here; there are more of them here than we could all deal with. We'll make our way round, and then spin back later. Let's just lose this herd first."

Maggie nodded her head, still too drawn up in sorrow to disagree. But Carl was not so easy to persuade.

"But Dad! We can't leave Dad!" he protested.

The walkers were coming closers to them, snapping their bloody jaws. "We can meet up with him once we're safe! Judith isn't safe here, none of us are."

"C'mon Carl. Michonne, Carol and Glenn were all definitely by Rick's side, he'll be fine." Maggie noted. "I won't be leaving without Glenn, so we won't be leaving your father. Just, let's get out of here and find him when we can!"

Carl looked up at the two of them and nodded his head.

Instantly, he took off, swirling through the trees, Tyreese running behind him cradling Judith. As the first walker was in arms reach, Maggie took out her knife. She pushed her hand out against its chest, and put her blade right between the eyes. She pushed it to the floor and took off running after Tyreese and Carl.

The sun was still high in the sky, burning Beth's face. She laid there, her legs covered in loose dirt, her torso and head pressed up against a willow tree. Her head was pounding, the repetitive banging like hard strikes on a drum. After each sensation, her brain felt like it was rattling around in her skull. She cringed in pain, her eyebrows burrowing down just above her eyes, which slowly started to flutter open.

Her blue eyes squinted alive, the sunlight burning into her core. A slight cough erupted from her chest and she spluttered up dirt. She spat it out onto the ground beside her and then she pushed herself up. Her hand went straight to her forehead, the pain becoming too much for her. She felt a small bandage wrapped around the top of her head, a spot of blood staining the material. She gasped as she felt a small tunnel in her forehead, making her body fall back to the ground. _What the hell had happened and why was she in so much pain?_

She stared back up at the blue sky, fluffy clouds floating silently. She had always admired the sky, could look up at it for hours, even as a child. When she was in Elementary School, she used to go on summer walks with her sister through the fields. They'd take a picnic basket, and a blanket and they'd find the biggest hill they could find and eat their lunch. Then they'd lie on the tartan sheet and stare up at the sky and try to find the funniest shapes in the clouds they could. They'd spend hours there, just talking and joking, being proper sisters. How things should be.

That memory felt like ages ago now. The recent world's troubles making her feel well beyond her years. She was only 18, maybe 19, and yet she had been through more than anybody in the old world would ever go through. Her whole family had been murdered; she had seen her mother shot. She saw her father beheaded by a wicked man and she had lost her home. She'd been sexually and physically assaulted and now here she was, lying in the dirt with a wound on her forehead making her barely able to move.

The last thing she could remember was a gunshot, and then everything had gone black. She could still hear the ringing of the pistol sending the bullet down the hallway. She could hear Daryl's screams, telling her everything would be alright. Of course, that wasn't true. Obviously, she wasn't dead, so he was right in that sense. But her worst nightmare had happened. She was alone. Alone in this treacherous and lethal world. Her sister, her lover, her family… all gone. What was there to live for now?

As she looked up at the sky, something started to catch her eye. Smoke. The grey clouds spiraled upwards until the gas slowly dissolved up high, getting lost in the blue sea. Could that be her family? It was a few miles away, so it was definitely possible, but it could be more people like the Governor… Like _Dawn. _

But that was a chance she was willing to take. She would be dead here on her own, and she could be killed by creeping up on these people, so really she had nothing to lose.

She moved her hand down towards her belt, frantically searching for her knife that was once tucked in. She winced as she thrust her body into the air, making it easier to search, still revealing nothing. Her stomach dropped. Her hands started scraping through the mud, her brain pondering whether it may have fallen off. The dirt stuck under her fingernails as she wildly searched for her weapon until she finally heard it.

There were moans. They flowed along with the breeze, the stench being carried along with it. Walkers were near.

She sat up quickly, the pain still filling her whole being, but this current pain being a lot less than having her limbs being torn apart one by one.

She was about to give up with the knife, wondering whether her chances of survival would be greater if she just tried to escape and run away. But then, her fingertip tapped on something cold, something metal.

The walker came out of the woods, a dirty decaying female, and her hair falling out of a loose ponytail. Along with her came a large male, wearing a mud stained hoodie. They hobbled closer to her, their bloodthirsty jaws snapping violently.

She moaned in pain as she twisted her body and pushed the dirt off of the blade and pulled it up towards her. She tucked it in her belt, pushing her yellow shirt behind it. She closed her eyes as she pushed her body off the ground, trying not to pass out. She wobbled onto her feet, her head still pounding, and stepped backwards. The walkers were gaining at quite a speed and Beth Greene hoped she was prepared.

She breathed in and lunged at the first one, stabbing the female in the head, the moving corpse falling limp. The man was quick behind her so Beth pushed the female off her blade and kicked the coming walker in the stomach, making it fall to the ground. Her head swayed and she went dizzy, the world spinning around her. Her lack of balance made her feel faint, so she collapsed to the floor on her back, making her slightly winded. She gasped for breathe as the walker started crawling up her body, making Beth kick at the air trying to push him off. It raised its head to bite down on her thigh, but she was slightly quicker, even in this state.

She kicked the walker square on the head, knocking the rotting corpse off of her. She sat up and started crawling on top of it. She stretched her arm up towards its skull, and slammed her knife between its eyes. Its whaling arms sunk to the ground as a dark burgundy liquid dribbled out. Beth pulled her knife out and wiped the disgusting gunge onto her blue jeans.

She rolled herself off of the walker and sat there for moment, hearing if anymore were on the way. She heard nothing but complete silence. The smoke was still swirling up into the sky; the clouds were still floating along with the wind. And she was alone. That had been her first kill on her own, and it had been one of the hardest. It would have taken a second and the walker could have infected her, meaning she would be dead in days. But she had killed it. She could survive on her own.

As she had said to Daryl, she wasn't Carol, or Michonne or even her sister, Maggie. But she was Beth Greene, and that was enough.

**AN: As I am British, i'm not exactly down with the American lingo, so I think Elementary school is like British Primary school? I don't know, but if somebody would like to let me know!**

**Anyways, thanks for reading guys. #TeamDelustional**


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